Beyond Our Planet is another blog I am working on about our Sun, Planets and the Universe beyond.

Though many may feel this is a morbid and even creepy subject, I find myself intrigued by psychological aspect of serial killers. What possesses someone to repeatedly kill other human beings?So I have started another blog. True Serial Killers.

The SPIDER GUIDE --I am trying to expand my efforts to the other 49 states, and I can use your help. If you have found me or Michigan Spiders helpful, Please consider heading over to my new site, The Spider guide and adding it to your bookmarks, clicking the G+1 icon at the top left, or clicking on follow.... or whatever you are comfortable with. The more who even look around the site, the higher it will rise up the search engines for more people in other states to find it.

I am looking for someone who is experienced with placing items like insects inside of clear resin paperweights. I would someday like to encase a Brown Recluse and a Black Widow. At this time I do not have the spiders, nor do I have the money, but I would like to find someone who has the ability to do a professional job and learn what the price would be for when I am ready. If you have this experience and would be willing to do it, please email me and let me know your price.

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Spiders verified to be here in Michigan are listed on the left sidebar. On the right sidebar, are the spiders of which pictures have been sent in to me.

MICHIGAN SPIDERS - The BOOKMichigan Spiders (Ebook version) is available at Smashwords for only $3.99 and at least at this time, is more complete than this site. It has more spiders and shows pictures for more species of spiders.

Once it becomes available at other stores (including the printed version at Amazon) I will update this posting.

NOT IN MICHIGAN? Thats okay! If you have a spider you want identified, and you are not from Michigan, or even America, please send the picture to me through my new (still in progress) site's email. Visit the Spider Guide for information.

VERY IMPORTANTContrary to what most people believe, the Brown Recluse is NOT indigenous to Michigan. However, if you have reason to believe you have found one, DO NOT discard it alive or dead! I can only uncover about 4 confirmed sightings ever in Michigan. A sighting cannot be confirmed without positive identification and this will take more than just a picture. Whether you catch it alive or kill it, please take pictures and send them to me. If I agree it is the Recluse, I will help you have it identified professionally.You can find the email where to send it, below.My DisclaimerMy Knowledge and Why I am Not an Expert

Please keep in mind that I am a very busy person. Between my family, my job, my books, and Michigan Spiders, there is often not enough time in the day. The lack of free time makes it very difficult for me to put any real time into updating this site, and I am sorry for that. I do try to keep up with emails during the warm months, but please be patient if you do not hear back from me within a day or two.FOR YOUR ENTERTAINMENT.....Beyond Spider DomeA clear plastic dome (well it is more of a cylinder really), where two spiders are released to face each other in a fight to the death.

Saturday, June 18, 2011

The following are pictures of Nursery Web Spiders that have been submitted to me by others living in Michigan. In doing this, I am able to show pictures of spiders in Michigan that I myself have not seen as well as more pics of those I have posted officially as being in Michigan.

Please understand that the Nursery Web Spiders in this section may or may not be indigenous to Michigan. I would hope that others would be honest and actually send pics of spiders they have actually found in Michigan, but I cannot make any guarantees.

I would also like to thank all of those listed below for their kindness in sending me these pics and giving me permission to use them as well as their first name and city.

Jenny - Rogers City area - (Her husband found it while hunting in the area.)

Kate - Auburn Hills Mi. - (I believe this to be a Nursery Web Spider, even after originally thinking it a Wolf Spider. I am still not positive on this one.)

Seems like there is at least 2 different looks of this spider...One is "fat" and another is "slim" and with much longer butt ;-) Some people (including me) thinks this one is a Brown Recluse.BTW...today I did talk to some lady in the pest control isle at the local store, and she was bitten by Brown Recluse last year, ended up in the hospital for 5 days and developed MRSA... Scary stuff knowing that this spider (Brown Recluse) shouldn't be here...

Brown Recluse are small, nursery web spiders are GIGANTIC, rivaling the size of Fishing Spiders. I rarely see them less than 1.75 in (and up to 2.5 or 3 inches), (Brown Recluse are less than 1 inch) so I'm not sure how you could mistake them. They look more like a Wolf Spider to me, which they also dwarf.

Many spiders come in different shapes and even colors and patterns. This is one of the reasons one needs so much detail to identify them. Sometimes two different spiders can look too much alike, where as a spider in the same family with a certain pattern can be easy to identify.

I am sure the lady you spoke to believes she was bit by a recluse. I would not be surprised in the least if the doctors diagnosed that. But consider this....

If it was a recluse bite, it likely did not turn into MRSA. The toxin of the recluse is what would have created the terrible sore and rotting of the flesh. If in the end it was diagnosed as MRSA, then it was likely never a recluse bit to begin with. It may have been a spider bite and the wound came in contact with the MRSA virus (or whatever it is), but unless she actually caught the spider and had it identified as a recluse, I dont buy that was what bit her. That is too rare and would have been documented and even news worthy here in Michigan.

It is very common for the MRSA infection to be diagnosed as a recluse bite. Many doctors make that mistake. The two wounds look very similar.

that may be true and iot may be rare to be bitten by one in michigan but even with it being rare doesnt automatically make it news worthy and may not have been documented i know they are around in toledo where i am from because my cousin was bitten by one and she got MRSA from it too she still has scars that are from it so know ur facts before u destroy someone elses confidence in what something is

I am not looking to destroy anyones confidence. At the same time, I will ALWAYS state the facts rather than aid someones mis-guided myths.

The fact is. The recluse is NOT indigenous to Michigan.

The fact is, I cannot find more than one case of a recluse bite in Michigan where the spider itself was identified.

The Fact is, doctors are often misdiagnosing MRSA and other dangerous infections as the Recluse bite.

The Fact is, if it was the recluse bite, then it was NOT MRSA. If it was MRSA, then it was not a recluse bite. The recluse venom would be strong enough to damage the flesh and cause amjor sore and possible rotting. I highly doubt you will find a case anywhere where it was both. It is possible your cousin was bit by a recluse that was transported to the area. But that would still say they are not indigenous to the area, and that it was not MRSA.

I am sorry but your cousin was misdiagnosed one way or the other. I have even talked to an Anthropologist at MSU for over 20 years and he said he has never heard of Wolf Spiders or other spiders carrying MRSA. I would think he would know if anyone. At one point I had it listed we did have them here and another expert emailed me correcting me. As I dug into it, I found he was right. That is TWO experts I have talked to. I would say that is knowing the facts. Likely, your cousin had contracted MRSA and it was misdiagnosed as a Recluse bite. I am sorry if that is hard to accept, but the Fact is, I do check my facts and we do not have the Brown Recluse in Michigan.

By the way... Yes, it would be news worthy. I have even watched a video of the news on the west coast of Michigan talking about how the Black Widow has migrated to Michigan. Since the Recluse is not supposed to be here, I am sure it would be news worthy if someone was actually bitten by one here.

Also, it is all possible they may be in Ohio. But from what I have read, it is even very rare for them to be found in Ohio. So the fact someone was bit by one in Toledo (If it was NOT MRSA), does not mean they are here in Michigan.

a girl at work was bitten by one of these, and in fact it started out as a pimple like thing, and it kept on getting bigger and bigger, after about two weeks, she went to the doctor, that it was extremely sore. it started eating the flesh of her leg,and into the muscle..needless to say she was off work for months, trying to keep the infection out, and in and out of the doctors....always be aware, they are here!

Mr.Schonmeier did you recieve the picture i sent you of the nursery web spider my friend found in her kids's outdoor toys? thank you for your site in different spiders. It helps to havea site for a quick reference to identify, visually , what spiders we find.

Well it wont harm the plant. I dont think. lol Actually they dont hatch their eggs by sitting on them. What you see is a sac with hundreds of eggs inside of it. THey attach the sac to their underside and carry it with them. When it is close to hatching, they will attach the sac to a plant and stand guard over them until the spiders hatch.

Are they poisonous? I have a big one outside my front door that my 4 year old son calls Wegs (Legs...lol)... I'm afraid that he will get bitten by it.. I will never kill a spider but I do not want him to try to play with it for obvious reasons...

My step dad in MI was bitten by a brown recluse last year and has a nasty scar now. My mom's dog was bitten by one a few months ago and the top half of his ear is now black and shriveled up as well as paralyzed

My daughter just got bit by a brown recluse when we were vacationing at our house this August in Kalkaska, MI, and yes a couple days later her leg was so swollen she couldn't walk and it was red with a black necrosis sore in the middle, so I rushed her to the hospital, and they said it was MRSA but we saw the spider on the seat of the boat and know it bit her, but in panic we flung it into the lake. I tried to tell the hospital I saw the spider bite her and I know it was a brown recluse as I lived in Georgia and seen them before, but they insist it's MRSA. I believe the others who wrote on this site about being bit by a recluse in Michigan and that they got MRSA from the bite.

I live in Ypsilanti, MI and found a very large black spider in our basement that was not in a web and was probably the size of a half dollar including legs. I have never seen one this size. Is it common for a wolf spider to get that large? I have a picture but it is far away and you really cannot tell the size. Makes me itch just writing about it.

I just moved into a cabin in November and have come across atleast 3-4 diffrent species of spiders with this being the most common. I have been trying to figure out what it is with worries that it may a Brown Recluse. So far this is the only spider that we have an issue of just roaming everwhere including on us. THe others stay up in there corners. Any idea of how to rid these spiders and is there any concern of there bites as I have children?Tammy- Big Rapids MI.

I have seen 4 of this type of spider this year. One in my kitchen sink, one in my son's toy chest one run up my arm when I was pushing my son in his swing and the other by our fire pit. Are these poisonous?

doesn't a brown recluse have an upside down violin going from his head, to the beginning of the abdomen? if I'm looking at these pictures correctly, the NURSERY WEB SPIDER just has a stripe, (big abdomen or small abdomen) neither of these pictures have the upside down violin.

Believe me. At first the millions of spiders i've been finding in my house were thought to be brown recluses. I begged my husband to let us move. I was severely paranoid. I had three crawling on me at one time once, while i was working around the yard, and screamed, because I thought they were brown recluses. My husband had to beat the crap out of one with a broom because it crawled up my foot and leg.

I'm confident in this site. I believe they're nursery web spiders, and even though they're still scary as shit, i'm much more calm in believing what this man says.

As for MRSA. you can't get MRSA from a spider. That's just idiotic thinking.

I've actually seen these several times in my yard. The spiders I'm thinking of look exactly like pictures 2 and 3. Every time of seen them, they've been hiding in a rolled up leaf or small nook/cranny with a thick looking web-wall blocking them from the rest of the world, excepting a small hole that I've seen them dart in and out of. I have never seen them inside my house, and quite honestly, I think they're quite interesting little creatures. Troy, MI

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K.J.Ester is an aspiring writer in the world of Fantasy, who is currently stuck in the field of Automotive Engineering and one all around strange puppy who keeps up with a few blogs like Michigan Spiders on the side.